Old As Dirt

A few years ago Jane made a birthday cake for her friend Ed that included a toy dinosaur and the words 'old as dirt' tucked in between the candles. It cracked everyone up and still makes me chuckle. Well, last weekend dear Jane celebrated her retirement and a wonderful milestone birthday, so my lovely and talented niece Julia created a great set of custom 'old as dirt' mugs for her, adding in '...and loving it!'

(I got two so that Jane can share a cuppa with Ed 😉). She had a good laugh when she opened them.

There's also been lots of 'secret squirrel' sewing hiding in the blog shadows in anticipation of the big day and I can now let the cat out of the bag. I had The Pumpkin Patch at Midnight machine quilted and finished it up to gift her.

This is one that has been in the works for a while. I gave her the flimsy a couple of years ago and then promised to machine quilt it for her. Well, long story short, I chickened out. I just didn't want to wreck it. Roberta of Cocoa and Quilts to the rescue!

She has done just a perfect job of the quilting - so much better than I could ever have done. The spider web stitching is ideal for the improv webs...

and this wonderful little pumpkin pattern stitched throughout the border sets it off perfectly.

I still love the pieced triangles that join all of the spiderwebs with their shards of colour. Roberta stitched 1/4" in from the edge of each triangle and then used a lovely swirl pattern to soften things up.

The backing is a little funky too. These great pumpkins combined with the orange and black harlequin print add a little fun. The quilt is about 5 feet square so it can be used either as a wall hanging or a tablecloth. If she wants to hang it I added a split sleeve to the back (Roberta showed me how to make a split sleeve that is stitched into the binding- the first quilt sleeve I've ever made). And a Hang It Dang It was included if she is keen to have it on the wall.

Jane is the Queen of Halloween and, much as I love this quilt (I think it's one the most favourite items I've made), I couldn't imagine it going to a better home, especially one where I have a good chance of having visiting rights....M

Sweets for the Sweet

I made a sweet little heart block to celebrate Valentine's Day - just love those corals, hot pinks and oranges. It will be added to my pile of Kitchen Sink blocks.

It's about 6" square and I think that it will find its way into a backing some day.

The Official Cookie Tester will enjoy a few sweet treats today as well. Happy Valentine's Day!....M

Omigosh Redux

Still not much stitching happening on this end but I do believe that my cold is finally breaking so hopefully by the end of the weekend things will be back to normal. I was off today so I went down and halfheartedly moved a few pieces of fabric around in the sewing room, but that was it. Not very productive. I did, however, notice my Omigosh blocks so here's an update on where that project is going.

I've got all of three nine-patch blocks sewn - that's 142 squares together now 😏. Lined up they would measure 5 x 15" finished - ha!

Earlier I had mentioned that I was planning a few changes to the original design which is very scrappy. The longer that I looked at it the more I wanted a little more structure to mine. I also wanted to simplify it a bit, so my Churn Dash blocks are all going to be in shades of beige and brown.

The idea came from the Edyta Sitar-inspired Basket of Scraps runner that I made a while back (ahem, not quite finished). Those browns really set off all of the tiny squares in the basket beautifully and once I hit upon the idea of using the same scheme for this project there was no turning back.

I'm also simplifying the Churn Dash blocks - there will be no tiny four-patches on point in the cream blocks, just a scrappy collection of creams and neutrals. I toyed with totally mixing the creams throughout the blocks so that all four corners were different too but it was easier just to make them all the same and I think adds a little subtle structure as well.

This photo is a little on the dark side (not the Star Wars kind of 'dark side', but dark) but the overall feel of the blocks together is very warm and almost caramelized. So anyway, that's the plan, at least for now....M

Strong Headwinds

A head cold doesn't make for great thinking skills or much motivation so things have been pretty quiet on the stitching front as of late. Occasionally I've picked up Anna Levens and added a hexie here and there, but it hardly makes for stellar updates.

Waiting for the drugs to work their magic and my mojo to return....M